Plus: Trump says cease-fire is "over" after U.S. and Iran trade strikes ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Ruairi Arrieta-Kenna & Chad de Guzman | July 08, 2026

Hello! Today, we have the latest developments in Graham Platner’s campaign for the U.S. Senate in Maine. We’re also looking at the renewal of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, plus Marine Le Pen’s candidacy for the French presidency.

Five Must-Reads

List of Democrats Who Might Replace Graham Platner Grows—as Platner Weighs His Future
TIME’s Philip Elliott outlines who the Democratic Party could choose to take Platner’s place on the ballot for Maine’s U.S. Senate election—but only if Platner steps aside. —TIME

Trump Says U.S.-Iran Cease-Fire Is ‚Over‘ After Traded Strikes
President Donald Trump said the interim agreement to end the Iran war is “over” after Washington and Tehran traded fresh strikes. “I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore,” he told reporters at the NATO summit on Wednesday. —TIME

A Messi Miracle Takes Over the World Cup
Sportswriters were finalizing their Messi obituaries last night as Egypt led Argentina with minutes to go. But the previous World Cup winners showed they still have more story to tell this year. —TIME

The Best New Books to Read This Summer
From Nantucket’s cottages to Malibu’s beaches, from urban parks to Midwestern hammocks: it’s time to pick a spot and hunker down with summer’s most ideal companions: books. —TIME

China May Restrict Access to Its Most Powerful AI Models
China spent years accused of stealing American AI. Now it wants to protect its own. —TIME

IN FOCUS

Path opens for Marine Le Pen to run for—and possibly win—France’s presidency

A member of the Le Pen political family has appeared on every presidential ballot in France since 1988. But when a Paris court last year banned Marine Le Pen, who leads the right-wing populist National Rally (RN) party, from seeking public office for five years, it seemed that dynastic record might come to an end.

But on Tuesday, the 57-year-old announced she will contest the 2027 French presidential elections to succeed the term-limited Emmanuel Macron after all. Her announcement came after an appellate court unexpectedly reduced the ban related to her conviction on the embezzlement of European Union funds back in 2025.

For months, the fate of Le Pen, daughter of National Front (the RN’s predecessor) founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, was uncertain as she appealed the case. The party already had a Plan B in the form of 30-year-old Jordan Bardella if Le Pen was barred. The court upheld Le Pen’s conviction but concluded that she had sufficiently served part of her punishment: her five-year ban was cut down to 45 months, with two-thirds of it suspended. With 15 months already served, the hurdle to her presidential bid was removed.

Le Pen huddled with party allies in light of the court’s unusual ruling, and they decided that she will be the RN’s presidential candidate next year, with Bardella as her lieutenant. “We have offered the French a complementary pair,” Le Pen said Tuesday of her tandem with Bardella. “It’s a winning ticket.”

If Le Pen succeeds, it would mark a stunning reversal for a powerful figurehead of France’s anti-immigration right who was once considered a political has-been after losing to Macron twice before.

Marine Le Pen exits after the verdict in her appeal trial at the Paris courthouse in France, on July 7, 2026. MUSTAFA YALCIN—ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES

A Le Pen presidency could fracture the E.U. She is nationalistic, protectionist, and largely Euroskeptic. Romain Fathi, associate professor of French politics and history at the Australian National University, tells TIME the biggest shift that “could have broader repercussions” for the world would be her approach toward Brussels, the seat of the E.U., especially if she decides to pull France back from being a leading member.

But some other aspects of French foreign policy would likely remain, Fathi says, as with the country’s nuclear capability and strategic ambitions under previous governments, Le Pen is unlikely to drastically change course. “She supports a strong French military,” he says.

Still, Le Pen’s electability is questionable. She’s already lost three times—in 2012 during the first round of an election eventually won by François Hollande, and in 2017 and 2022 run-offs against Macron. And while RN is popular in the polls, they were too in 2024 before ultimately falling third in snap parliamentary elections behind an insurgent left-wing alliance and Macron’s centrist party. Then there’s the issue of how she’ll carry out her campaign. The court ordered Le Pen to wear an electronic monitor, which could limit her. Le Pen has said that she plans to appeal this.

Nonetheless, Le Pen’s candidacy will be serious, and she could indeed win on the back of a growing right-wing populist movement, which has taken hold not just in France, but across Europe. The French electorate has shown a slide to the right in recent months, and French voters have recently shown more eagerness to block the hard-left instead.

“Le Pen is an unlikely 2027 winner—too many French people find the history of her party abhorrent and reminiscent of Vichy, the occupation and collaboration,” Fathi says, “but we cannot rule her out because a growing number of French electors are growing dissatisfied with traditional parties and bureaucracy.”

ONE NUMBER

30%

A new poll found that about 3 in 10 U.S. adults—including about half of Democrats, 30% of Jewish adults, and 13% of Republicans—believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza, while only 2 in 10 believe Israel has not committed genocide and the remainder say they don’t know enough to take a position.

The survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reveals a drop in support for and prioritization of Israel, particularly along partisan and generational lines.

SOURCE: AP-NORC

A VIRAL MOMENT

An unstable skyscraper in Manhattan

Several buildings were evacuated and some streets were closed in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday morning after workers on a 37-story construction project near Grand Central Terminal found buckled columns and sagged floors, heightening concerns about a potential localized collapse. Video from the inside showed what appeared to be bent support beams.

By late Tuesday, the building in question—formerly the headquarters of the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer—had been stabilized after hours of monitoring, the city’s Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said, though some emergency measures remained in place in case of any movement.

A developer on the project downplayed the structural damage as “nothing more than a typical construction mishap.”